The Mediterranean is the top tourism destination worldwide. Sunbathers and swimmers flock to the sea during summer holidays. Idyllic though it may seem, all is not well. The Mediterranean is the world’s most overfished sea, with the highest percentage of unsustainably harvested fish populations, according to a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Increasing human activity … Read more
Version française | Versione italiana Oceana launched today a report uncovering 41 potential cases of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Mediterranean Sea using data from Global Fishing Watch. The findings were submitted and discussed at two governmental meetings of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM)1, during which countries failed to provide clarification … Read more
Monitor, control and surveillance are crucial to ensure proper fisheries management and to rebuild stocks, in particular in the Mediterranean Sea, where 80% of the stocks are considered to be outside biologically safe limits. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has taken significant steps in the last years towards reversing this situation, including … Read more
A health-check report on world fisheries and aquaculture by the United Nations (UN) has revealed that one-third of global marine fish stocks are now fished at unsustainable levels and have reached ‘overfished’ status. Oceana flags particular attention to the state of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, which according to the report published today, is the … Read more
Being one of the busiest seas in the world, the Mediterranean is also a sea where illicit fishing activities still go unnoticed and thus unpunished…until now. Most of the cases of illegal fishing that make news in Europe seem to happen in far flung regions such as the Pacific or even the Antarctic. But such … Read more
The Commission’s proposal is a first step in the right direction to tackle the long-lasting overfishing situation in the Mediterranean Sea and realise the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)’s objectives of achieving Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) by 2020 and minimize fisheries impacts on the ecosystems. However, the WMedMAP is clearly insufficient as it stands to reverse … Read more
The European Commission today released its annual report on the state of fish stocks and the progress made so far in achieving sustainable fisheries – the main objective of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The data from the report show that overfishing levels still remain high in the North East Atlantic, including adjacent seas, … Read more
Today, 15 marine conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Spain and Portugal met in Lisbon – in Ecologistas en Acción’s sailboat Diosa Maat and on Liga para a Protecção da Natureza’s headquarters – for the first time, to coordinate their work on key marine conservation issues. The Iberian sardine stock, the deep sea fishing opportunities and … Read more
The European Commission today published a revision of the European fisheries Control Regulation, which aims to ensure compliance with rules of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and a system of monitoring, inspection and enforcement for fishing operations in EU waters and activities of the EU fleet globally. The Commission’s proposal includes measures that aim to … Read more
The European Parliament today adopted in its final vote the North Sea Multi-Annual Plan (NSMAP). The plan covers nearly one-third of all fish catches in EU waters, and includes demersal species, such as: cod, haddock, whiting, sole, plaice and Norway lobster. According to Oceana, the final deal is not acceptable, as it does not fully implement … Read more
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